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Will Bloc’s piggybacking on PQ ‘values charter’ pay off?

Independent MP Maria Mourani drops her head as she speaks to reporters at her constituency office in Montreal Friday, September 13, 2013 following her expulsion from the Bloc Quebecois party. Photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

OTTAWA – Bloc Quebecois Leader Daniel Paille may have inflicted a fatal wound to his struggling party by ejecting his lone Montreal MP, Maria Mourani, over her criticism of the proposed Charter of Quebec Values.

But the stunning move has also brought the sovereigntist party back into the national spotlight — a rare occurrence since its epic collapse in the 2011 federal election that left it with four seats in the House of Commons.

So is Paille’s move a dangerous risk that could sink the Bloc for good or a calculated gamble that could bring it new life?

“It’s the first time that Daniel Paille has done something so spectacular,” said Christian Bourque, a pollster with Leger Marketing. “So it may bring a little bit of the limelight back on the Bloc Quebecois, because since Justin Trudeau (was) almost crowned (as Liberal leader), there’s no space for the Bloc Quebecois in the (federal) political landscape in Quebec.”

If Paille’s election as leader in December 2011 received only modest attention, the latest controversy over the proposed charter has prompted a flood of both criticism and praise. The Quebec government of Premier Pauline Marois this week proposed a charter that would eliminate overt religious symbols from the public service. Mourani was expelled from the federal Bloc caucus after she openly denounced the proposal as being discriminatory, linking it to ethnic nationalism.

Former federal Liberal cabinet minister Jean Lapierre, one of Quebec’s most influential political analysts and a founding member of the Bloc, noted that most online reaction has been negative, starting with Lisette Lapointe, a former Quebec politician and wife of former premier Jacques Parizeau.

Lapointe, who had questioned Marois’ leadership while storming out of the PQ caucus in June 2011, took to her personal Twitter account to express her outrage about Paille’s expulsion of Mourani.

“The ‘believe or die’ (position) of the actual leader of the Bloc Quebecois is a reminder of unpleasant memories,” wrote Lapointe on Thursday. “We are with you, courageous Maria Mourani!”

For his part, Paille has sent mixed signals about the proposed charter this week, initially endorsing the Bloc’s longstanding position — first advocated by former leader Gilles Duceppe in 2007 — that a ban on religious symbols should only apply to public sector employees in positions of authority, such as judges or police officers.

Although Paille reiterated the Bloc policy and called for an open debate about the PQ proposal on Tuesday, two days later he was firing Mourani and declaring “full support” for the PQ government, prompting speculation that Marois’ office was calling the shots for him.

“People who know these (sovereigntist) circles well, tell me that there’s no doubt he received a call from the (PQ) mother ship,” said Lapierre Friday during his daily morning commentary on a Cogeco talk radio network in Montreal.

But Bourque said the Bloc is bringing itself into a debate that appears to be boosting the fortunes of the PQ government — and so could help the Bloc too. He said it has the potential of alienating some Bloc supporters in the Montreal region while building support in rural parts of Quebec where the population is more focused on its provincial government.

Leger Marketing’s latest poll, released Aug. 31 and commissioned by Montreal newspaper Le Devoir, found that the PQ had seen a five-percentage-point boost in its popularity over the summer. This period also included the Lac Megantic train disaster, in which the Marois government received favourable media coverage for its response to the tragedy.

But the poll was also taken after some details of the charter proposal leaked through media reports, and well before the Bloc got involved in the debate.

In federal voting intentions, the poll showed the Bloc was “flatlining” and in third place with 23 per cent support, trailing Trudeau’s Liberals at 35 per cent and Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats at 31 per cent.

While the Bloc is now garnering some new attention, Bourque suggested that it might need Prime Minister Stephen Harper — who has not personally reacted to the Charter’s release this week — to weigh in, thus lending the Bloc a hand if the sovereigntist party wants to capitalize over the long-term.

“The only way, I could see them maybe seeing some improvement in their fortunes would be if there was an open conflict between the federal and the provincial government on the charter itself,” Bourque said. “Other than that, I cannot see this being a real sort of game changer.”